Who Won the First Presidential Debate?

**Koga No Goshi** · 09-27-2008, 20:42

Originally Posted by TuffStuffMcGruff

Did anyone else count the amount of times Obama said "senator mccain is absolutely right", or some other statement saying roughly the same thing? I lost count at 50. That is a useful tool when you use it sparingly, but use it so repetitively and it sounds like you're voting for him. Hell, I couldn't even say it that many times about McCain and I AM voting for him.

1 - Yes, even Democrats say they get aggravated with how "polite" Democratic candidates need to be, and how they always keep the gloves on. But the polls backfire on us big time when we act more like Republicans in campaigns.

2 - Agreeing with Senator McCain (this is a purely "campaign tactics" observation) probably doesn't win him any Republican votes, and probably doesn't cost him any Democratic votes, but it does resonate positively with the independents.

3 - I would prefer someone who can admit when the other party was correct on something, rather than someone who will bullheadedly disagree with anything coming out of the mouth of someone from the opposite party.

4 - Yes it did open Obama up to the repeatedly abused response from McCain that Obama "doesn't understand", trying to inflect inexperience or naivete on Obama. But the only people who will respond strongly to that are superficial people who think that McCain "seeming" more experienced makes up for the fact that, like all the other "experienced" people like Rumsfeldt, he has incredibly poor judgment and has been wrong on nearly every major call he's made about our foreign policy since 2000.

5 - Would rather have someone who can actually build on middle ground instead of someone who uses the word "bipartisan" 50 times in the debate but what that really means to him is being contentious and taking all the credit himself.

**Divinus Arma** · 09-28-2008, 06:19

Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost

If I may, I would like to re-emphasise KukriKhan's point about smileys made in another thread.

I'm assuming, because it's Lemur, that this comment was made in jest. Yet let us reflect what mayhem would have ensued had a similar monkey allusion been made with regard to Senator Obama.

Without any smiley this triggered the Itchy Mod Finger* to which my esteemed colleague referred earlier.

Please can we get into the habit of adding smileys to comments that might be misinterpreted.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Easy, Oh wrathful one.

Mandatory Smiley:

**Divinus Arma** · 09-28-2008, 06:30

Actually on topic:

While watching the debate on FOX NEWS, being mindful of each outlets bias, I was fascinated to see that the use of the split screen candidate shot was only employed while John McCain was speaking. This split screen showed Barak Obama squirming and smirking, frustrated, and generally dissatisified with John McCain comments. Frankly, it made Barak Obama look a bit emotionally attached to the comments. I was delightfully surprised to my amusement that FOX NEWS would not use the split screen to show John McCain's Reactions to Obama.

For half a second I thought I was being overparanoid and overly aware of FOX NEWS media bias. Again, I was delightfully entertained with the following information from this morning's L.A. TIMES Editorial page:

It was a debate, mostly civil though occasionally cranky, between a tough old man and a polished young one. McCain revealed more of himself in that arena, wincing and grimacing during the split-screen shots while Obama was speaking.

Reference: L.A. Times at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...,4778370.story

Not ONCE did FOX NEWS show a split screen when Obama was speaking to show McCain's.

Here we see the media bias of both the liberal L.A. TIMES and the conservative FOX NEWS. It was fun to see it so glaringly obvious.

Tee hee hee. Mwa ha ha!

**Koga No Goshi** · 09-28-2008, 06:34

Originally Posted by Divinus Arma

Actually on topic:

While watching the debate on FOX NEWS, being mindful of each outlets bias, I was fascinated to see that the use of the split screen candidate shot was only employed while John McCain was speaking. This split screen showed Barak Obama squirming and smirking, frustrated, and generally dissatisified with John McCain comments. Frankly, it made Barak Obama look a bit emotionally attached to the comments. I was delightfully surprised to my amusement that FOX NEWS would not use the split screen to show John McCain's Reactions to Obama.

For half a second I thought I was being overparanoid and overly aware of FOX NEWS media bias. Again, I was delightfully entertained with the following information from this morning's L.A. TIMES Editorial page:

Not ONCE did FOX NEWS show a split screen when Obama was speaking to show McCain's.

Here we see the media bias of both the liberal L.A. TIMES and the conservative FOX NEWS. It was fun to see it so glaringly obvious.

Tee hee hee. Mwa ha ha!

This is the same old reliable network that put a "D" after Florida Congressman Mark Foley's name when his sex scandal with male white house aides was breaking news...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRcV_ARr-I4

**Sasaki Kojiro** · 09-28-2008, 07:58

**CountArach** · 09-28-2008, 08:57

Pointing out Faux News' mistakes? Count me in!

**PanzerJaeger** · 09-28-2008, 10:52

**Jolt** · 09-28-2008, 12:33

Why isn't there a poll opinion "GAH" for us Europeans? :-<

**Banquo's Ghost** · 09-28-2008, 15:37

Originally Posted by Jolt

Why isn't there a poll opinion "GAH" for us Europeans? :-<

Because if we're not interested, then we should politely butt out.

**Lemur** · 09-28-2008, 16:33

Yet another poll saying Obama did better. Shows you what I know.

A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows 46% of people who watched Friday night's presidential debate say Democrat Barack Obama did a better job than Republican John McCain; 34% said McCain did better.

Obama scored even better -- 52%-35% -- when debate-watchers were asked which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country's problems. [...]

Three in 10 said their opinion of Obama became more favorable after seeing the debate, compared to 14% who said less favorable and 54% who said it didn't make much difference.

More than one-third of viewers, or 37%, said they had less confidence in McCain to fix economic problems after seeing the debate; 23% said more. For Obama, the survey results were 34% more confidence, 26% less.

Neither candidate broke away on national security and foreign policy.

**Sarmatian** · 09-29-2008, 01:24

I think Obama did better. He wasn't afraid to look his opponent in the eyes and discuss things with him, while McCain referred to him in third person always, like he wasn't there. And generally, I think he understands more the problems of US and its foreign policy than McCain. McCain flaunted his experience in the field, while all that experience didn't stop him from supporting blunders of Bush administration. He is too much old school while Obama appeared more open to new ideas and I think that's what America needs in the 21st century.

I'm not American, and therefore not republican or democrat. I don't know if I'm qualified to comment but president of the US affects my country more than my own president so I have to check what's happening over there...

**Gregoshi** · 09-30-2008, 15:28

I got to listen to the whole debate yesterday. I wish the candidates in these debates would take a few seconds of their ~~speeches~~ responses to actually answer the questions.

I haven't read up on the fact checking followups in the media in the McCain/Obama "You said/I did not" tit-for-tat, but my impression on who handled themselves better and more presidential, I'd have to give the nod to Obama. McCain came off as combative for the sake of being combative. Obama at least acknowledged areas of agreement - not everything was black and white between the two's viewpoints. When McCain pointed out that Obama voted against spending money for troops in Iraq, it was Obama that pointed out that they both did - but it was not because of the troop money, but attached legislation having to do with their differences over the troop withdraw timetables. I found that a refreshing "confession". McCain talked about change, but I found his rhetoric to sound old and stale. McCain's impression wasn't all negative for me but I was a bit let down in his performance.

I still need to look at the specifics of their stances on various issue, but I liked what I heard from Obama more than what I heard from McCain.